Volkswagen to launch new brand for its cheap EVs

Volkswagen Group is plotting to launch yet another car brand as part of its plans to introduce a new family of budget pure-electric cars.

Back in March 2019 Volkswagen Group's chairman, Herbert Diess, announced that the VW-owned SEAT would be the brand under which a range of affordable battery-powered vehicles would be launched, but those plans have now been scuttled.

According to Volkswagen, the Spanish car-maker will no longer front its budget EVs because it has been forced to postpone its entry into the Chinese market.

SEAT's presence in China was crucial because the cost of developing and manufacturing cut-price EVs was set to be shared with Chinese car-maker JAC Automobile Group.

Rumoured to cost well-below €20,000 ($A34,000), the affordable EVs that Volkswagen plans to introduce will be tens of thousands of dollars cheaper than Volkswagen's own ID range of electric vehicles.

Confirming SEAT had lost the project for the budget electric car program, a VW Group spokesman reportedly said of the postponed Chinese launch that it "would not have made sense for them to continue to cooperate with JAC".

SEAT, meanwhile, says it is still actively involved in the project with Volkswagen's Chinese pure-electric partner, announcing it would "continue to collaborate in the areas of design and R&D," although it also confirmed it would not hold a shareholding in the alliance brand.

There's no word on what names Volkswagen is considering for its new cheap EV brand -- which will join Audi, SEAT, Skoda, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, Porsche, Ducati, Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles, Scania and MAN -- nor whether it is considering expanding its ID sub-brand to become a full-blown standalone car-maker.